Glucocorticoids change the ratio of type III to type I procollagen extracellularly.

Rat skin fibroblasts were treated with dexamethasone and labeled with radioactive proline for 2 hours. Intracellular and extracellular procollagens were immunoprecipitated with monospecific polyclonal antibodies. Both intracellular and extracellular types I and III procollagen were decreased coordinately by glucocorticoid treatment. The ratio of type III to type I procollagen was the same for control and dexamethasone-treated cell cultures. However, when rat skin fibroblasts were prelabeled with radioactive proline and chased in the presence of unlabeled proline the ratio of type III to type I extracellular procollagens remained constant in the glucocorticoid-treated cells and increased in control fibroblasts.